Standard 17: Interdependence

This site offers an abundance of information on Earth's biomes (rainforest, tundra, taiga, desert, temperate, and grasslands), as well as marine and freshwater ecosystems. The site features relevant facts, pictures, maps, indigenous plants and animals, additional links, and much more.

This resource is a wonderful reference, not a lesson plan. Teachers will need to provide an objective and structure for student interaction with the website.

Type: Educational Software / Tool

NASA Aqua Satellite image, captured on April 25, 2010, of an oil slick caused by the April 20, 2010 explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico off the coasts of Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida.

Type: Image/Photograph

Type: Lesson Plan

In this interactive lesson, students will understand the concept of carbon footprint and its role in climate change. Students learn how to measure their carbon footprint using an online carbon footprint calculator. This tool allows them to assess the environmental impact of their daily activities. Students will explore some effective strategies and actions aimed at reducing their carbon footprint. They will be able to recognize the responsibilities of citizens and the government to help create a greener future.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will investigate how the legislature creates policies and passes laws in response to citizens’ needs through direct instruction. Students will then analyze three environmental policies, answer questions, engage in discussion and then transfer this knowledge to create a policy that works to solve their original researched environmental issue. This is lesson 2 of 3 in a mini-unit integrating civics and biology.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will transfer the knowledge they gained from their researched environmental issue in part 1 and the policy making process in part 2 to now draft a policy that works to solve the issue they originally researched. Students will then engage in an activity in order to argue and defend their policy and to ensure that it is the most effective solution for their environmental issue. This is lesson 3 of 3 in a mini-unit integrating civics and biology.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be introduced to environmental issues that connect with their biology learnung and will then research to create a poster or model (in groups) that answers the Who? What? Where? When? Why? about the environmental issue they've chosen. This is lesson 1 of 3 in a mini-unit integrating civics and biology.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will continue their consideration of the legal water dispute between Florida and Georgia and research the issues involved to create a point-counterpoint argument on whether the actions of humans in Georgia affect the aquatic ecosystems in Florida. They will apply their understanding of factors that affect aquatic ecosystems as well as the impact that humans can have on the environment in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be analyzing and interpreting the legislative intent of the Florida Beach and Shore Preservation Act as a legislative solution to ecological problems found in coastal areas of the state due to harmful human activity in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be introduced to the legal water dispute between Florida and Georgia. They will research the issues involved to explore whether/how the actions of humans in Georgia affect the aquatic ecosystems in Florida. Students will discover how disputes like this one between states are addressed in the United States during this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will work in small groups to create an informational flyer promoting community involvement in their conservation efforts in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will work individually and in small groups to analyze the Everglades Forever Act then roleplay as a social media team attempting to increase community involvement in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will observe a demonstration of the effects of changing a landscape on water flow and connect what they observe in the demo with the development of South Florida wetlands. They will then be introduced to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) and assess the influence the government had on changes in the ecosystem and the lives of the South Florida population in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will create posters to advocate for a solution to an environmental impact and will vote for which issue the class thinks should be pursued in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will discuss the impacts of oil spills and how they can use civic responsibility to help restore our ecosystems in this integrated lesson plan. 

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will independently research human environmental impacts and think of ways they can use civic duties from last class to persuade the class to support their solutions in this integrated lesson.   

Type: Lesson Plan

The “To Sod or Not To Sod” MEA provides students with an environmental dilemma in which they must work as a team to develop a procedure to select the most environmentally friendly grass for the lawns in a new neighborhood. The lesson provides students with the opportunity to recognize how the voice of citizens can be used to build a sense of community through environmental awareness in this model eliciting activity.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the political, social, and environmental consequences of government monitoring and policy decisions regarding sustainable use of land and water.  They will interpret the Florida statutes and consider their impact on the citizens and environment of Florida in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the political, social, and environmental consequences of government monitoring and policy decisions regarding sustainable use of land and water.  They will interpret the Florida statutes and consider their impact on the citizens and environment of Florida in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the political, social, and environmental consequences of government monitoring and policy decisions regarding sustainable use of land and water.  They will interpret the Florida statutes and consider their impact on the citizens and environment of Florida in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the political, social, and environmental consequences of government monitoring and policy decisions regarding sustainable use of land and water.  They will interpret the Florida statutes and consider their impact on the citizens and environment of Florida in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the political, social, and environmental consequences of government monitoring and policy decisions regarding sustainable use of land and water.  They will interpret the Florida statutes and consider their impact on the citizens and environment of Florida in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the political, social, and environmental consequences of government monitoring and policy decisions regarding sustainable use of land and water.  They will interpret the Florida statutes and consider their impact on the citizens and environment of Florida in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the political, social, and environmental consequences of government monitoring and policy decisions regarding sustainable use of land and water.  They will interpret the Florida statutes and consider their impact on the citizens and environment of Florida in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the importance of biodiversity and interdependence within ecosystems by analyzing Florida Statutes related to nonnative species.  They will interpret the statutes and consider their impact on the citizens and environment of Florida in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the importance of biodiversity and interdependence within ecosystems by analyzing Florida Statutes related to nonnative species.  They will interpret the statutes and consider their impact on the citizens and environment of Florida in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the importance of biodiversity and interdependence within ecosystems by analyzing Florida Statutes related to nonnative species.  They will interpret the statutes and consider their impact on the citizens and environment of Florida in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the importance of biodiversity and interdependence within ecosystems by analyzing Florida Statutes related to nonnative species.  They will interpret the statutes and consider their impact on the citizens and environment of Florida in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore the importance of biodiversity and interdependence within ecosystems by analyzing Florida Statutes related to nonnative species.  They will interpret the statutes and consider their impact on the citizens and environment of Florida in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will assume the roles of various community members involved in a pollution problem in Florida. They will brainstorm solutions and create a policy to reduce the pollution at their source.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will be instructed on the importance and benefits of biodiversity as well as human impacts on biodiversity loss. They will explore the roles and responsibilities of citizens as it pertains to these issues. Students will work collaboratively to perform online research on examples of human impacts on biodiversity and how it relates to them as individuals and as citizens within their community. Each group will participate in a class discussion using their roles as citizens to determine the responsibilities and obligations they have to help limit biodiversity loss.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will discover some of the ways humans have impacted South Florida’s environments and explore proposals to help improve and restore them in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore how the environmental policies of different countries influence what we consume and how the sustainability of those products influence our society in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will work in small groups to review information about an invasive species in Florida and learn to recognize scientifically reliable sources. Groups will teach their classmates about the assigned species and discuss some of the impacts that species has on the biodiversity of the local ecosystem where they have been introduced.

Students will explore the role of the state government, specifically the Florida Wildlife Commission and the Florida Department of Agriculture, in preserving the biodiversity of Florida. Students will relate the creation of invasive species laws to the impacts government can have on the environment and daily lives of citizens.

Type: Lesson Plan

Type: Lesson Plan

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson covers:

•How the ocean moves and why it is important to all life on Earth

•Different geologic features in the ocean and how they impact currents

•How the Earth and ocean are studied by satellites and remote sensing

•How to use a web based program to interpret real world satellite data

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson covers:

• How wind influences ocean currents
• How currents transport heat and water around the world
• Florida specific currents and oceanography
• How currents connect the world’s climate

Type: Lesson Plan

Type: Lesson Plan

Type: Lesson Plan

Type: Lesson Plan

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson introduces students to complex systems and to basic concepts from the field of system dynamics that lie at the heart of systems thinking. These concepts include stocks and flows, feedback loops, unintended consequences, and the basic principle that the behavior of complex systems can best be understood by looking at the system as a whole, and specifically by analyzing the system’s underlying structure. The lesson introduces these topics through an immersion in (and a role-play simulation of) the dynamics of urban recycling systems, many of which have been thrown into crisis in the past two years. Through this current-affairs example of complex systems in crisis, we identify some key structural features that help to explain how these systems behave over time. We also discover how well-intentioned action can cause negative unintended consequences when we try to intervene in a complex system without understanding how it operates.

Type: Lesson Plan

This BLOSSOMS lesson discusses Carbon Dioxide, and its impact on climate change. The main learning objective is for students to become more familiar with human production of Carbon Dioxide gas, as well as to gain an awareness of the potential for this gas to effect the temperature of Earth’s atmosphere. This lesson should take about an hour to complete. In order to complete the lesson, the teacher will need: printed copies of signs representing the different products and processes that take place in the carbon cycle (included), samples of matter that represent those products, handouts for the students to create a graphic of the carbon cycle (included) and graph paper or graphing software for students to create graphs. In the breaks of this BLOSSOMS lesson, students will be creating models of the carbon cycle as well as observing experiments and analyzing data from them. It is hoped that this lesson will familiarize students with ways in which carbon moves through our environment and provide them with some personal connection to the impact that an increased concentration of CO₂ can have on air temperature. The goal is to spark their interest and hopefully to encourage them to ask and investigate more questions about the climate. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be able to distinguish among the types of mangroves common to Florida and understand their zonation within the coastal community. They will also be able to describe how mangroves, as an essential biotic component, help stabilize the coastline and protect it from erosion and storm surges. Lastly, students will provide argumentation supported by evidence for the protection of mangroves. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be able to identify abiotic and biotic factors of an assigned Everglades ecosystem, discuss how these factors influence adaptations, and identify structural and behavioral adaptations that help organisms survive in their ecosystem. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be able to explain the concepts of ecotone and edge effect and describe how the edge effect relates to biological diversity in a watershed.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about water quality management for the Everglades and will analyze sample data from a Stormwater Treatment Area. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will read a passage from Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s The Everglades: The River of Grass and compare the description with the present day Everglades. They will then look at the impacts from the US Army Corps of Engineers project and evaluate whether the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) addresses these issues. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will analyze information about various current and ongoing CERP projects and report on the progress that is being made. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will look at a typical water conservation plan and analyze it from the viewpoint of various stakeholders. 

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a simulation that allows students to explore how the common usage of a potentially renewable resource can lead to its exploitation. Students will complete an activity, a data sheet, an analysis of the data, and discuss how the concept of the ‘commons' relates to southern Florida's water resources. 

Type: Lesson Plan

In small groups, students build a model landscape to illustrate the uniqueness of the Kissimmee-Lake Okeechobee-Everglades (K-O-E) watershed and use a model to demonstrate how alterations have affected it.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students explore the costs and environmental impacts of land development and restoration.

Type: Lesson Plan

This an introductory population density and distribution lesson for one class period.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed to help students understand the impact of pesticide use on human health and the environment.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the interactions of many different species of organisms in Yellowstone National Park. Specifically, the text focuses on the importance of not only the interactions that wolves have with the ecosystem, but how important beavers are to the stability of the whole ecosystem. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that explains how a smaller species of organisms are filling a niche of larger organisms that have been reduced due to overfishing and disease. These smaller organisms have been shown to reduce algal communities that can lead to the destruction of crucial coral reefs. This discovery may have large, beneficial impacts on endangered coral communities around the world. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes use of a seed discussion organizer, a vocabulary handout, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, sample answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. This article explains how bioremediation takes place via microorganism digestion of toxic waste generated by human activity. Students will learn how this process occurs naturally and how this natural process has been researched and is now utililized to clean up spills of certain hazardous substances. This lesson includes a vocabulary guide, a Cornell Notes note-taking guide, text dependent questions, and a writing prompt, along with answer keys and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article briefly summarizes the nitrogen cycle, then explains how human activities have impacted ecosystems through the increased release of nitrogen and explores potential solutions to alleviate the issues caused by excess nitrogen. A video is also presented which explores why Florida had a large-scale eutrophication event in 2016 and presents solutions and economic implications of the event. By reading, viewing, and synthesizing information from the article and video, students learn how excess nitrogen impacts aquatic ecosystems and the economy. Further, they will be able to provide suggestions to lessen our impact on these systems. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains how Caribbean bat species are uniquely suited for studying the consequences of extinction. By reading this article, students will get a better understanding of geographic isolation and speciation, which are major themes when discussing the theory of evolution. In addition, students will gain an understanding of the devastating effects human impact can have on populations of species.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read an informational text that discusses the spread of White Nose Syndrome in North American bats and how bat colonies are being affected in both size and number. The article also provides a comparison between European and North American bat colonies suffering with this disease. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, and answer keys.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The National Science Foundation article discusses research on the effects of the Sea Star Associated Densovirus, a virus devastating sea star populations. The article further explains the implication of the virus for the tidal ecosystems of the Pacific West Coast. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read an article from the National Science Foundation that discusses how a drought affected the savannas of southern Kenya during 2009. It further addresses how baboons are affected later in life based on when they are born and the social status they are born into. Based on the research on baboons, the implications on human health are also discussed in the latter portion of the article. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains the dynamic carbon cycle and how human activity contributes to global warming. A second related text builds on that knowledge to discuss the importance of Everglades mangroves as carbon "sinks." By reading and synthesizing both articles, students will learn not only about the specifics of the carbon cycle, but how it applies to Florida and the rest of the world. This lesson includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article showcases recent research into the declining Arctic sea ice and its effect on polar bear populations. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses a study that confirms the impact of removing just one bumblebee species from an ecosystem. The text describes how removing just one bumblebee species from an ecosystem causes less effective pollination and lower seed production. Bumblebees, as most bees do, stick with one species of flower until it's finished blooming. Scientists have found that when one bee species is removed it causes the remaining bee species to "cheat" on their original flower species. This causes a decrease in pollination and in seed production. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read a National Science Foundation article that discusses a 200-year study into the mortality of forests. The process of decomposition and the importance of decaying wood in a forest are explained in great detail. The research described has altered and changed the management plans for forest ecosystems worldwide.

This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. It includes a note-taking guide, a vocabulary guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the research and efforts by scientists to save the slow loris from extinction. It discusses the complexity of conservation today and details how there are many different layers that need to be addressed on this issue. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read an article from the National Science Foundation that discusses how extended droughts have affected salt marsh ecosystems found in the Southeastern part of the United States. The article then describes the mutualistic relationship that was discovered between ribbed mussels and salt marsh grasses and how this relationship is helping the marshes survive and recover from the droughts. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses a new method for measuring the amount of mercury in the environment that is formed as a byproduct of human activities. The text describes how scientists were able to develop a method for measuring mercury by using data about phosphate and carbon dioxide levels. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article addresses the fluctuations of the jellyfish population in the Bering Sea and describes how a new study explains the increase and decrease of jellyfish in that ecosystem. The study focuses on whether or not rising water temperature (due to climate change) is the driving factor in jellyfish population growth. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

The students will create a book containing information about the cause and effect of global warming. The book will include possible solutions to reduce pollution to help Save Our Planet Now! The students will research and record information regarding the impact of fossil fuels on the environment.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will help their teacher figure out where her water samples came from by determining their relative salinity. With this information and a picture map of areas of the Intercoastal Waterway, they will locate possible sources of the samples.

Type: Lesson Plan

The relationship between oceans and climate change has been debated. The cost of ocean and marine life conservation can be high. Students will create an ecological budget to decide whether the preservation of marine ecosystems is worth the cost.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will study the effects of seasonal variations in climate (and corresponding events) on mangrove ecosystems and examine the ways that natural systems protect plant and animal populations.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article compares carbon emissions from human activities to those from natural volcanic processes. The authors outline the methods, data collection, and findings of carbon emissions, closing the debate on what releases the most carbon. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an intended to support reading in the content area. The article addresses an innovative way to determine the age of the nitrogen in corn and soybean fields. Determining nitrogen's age could help make agriculture more precise, because when farmers over-fertilize their fields, the excess can leak into water supplies. Research scientists from the University of Illinois believe they can use this new technology to identify areas that are specifically deficient in nitrogen and therefore eliminate the need to apply it uniformly. This would benefit agriculture and the environment. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an that addresses accidental wastewater spills in North Dakota from the use of fracking. The text describes how fracking has caused widespread water and soil contamination. Researchers have found high levels of contaminants and salt in surface waters. Soil at the spill sites contain radium, and in some places radium was found to be present even 4 years after a spill. Researchers studied almost 4,000 spill sites in North Dakota to connect the soil and water contamination directly to fracking spills. This lesson plan is designed to support reading in the content area; it includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

The changing climate is an important topic for both scientific analysis and worldly knowledge. This lesson uses data collected by the National Snow and Ice Data Center to create and use statistical analysis as a tool to evaluate the sea ice loss. Students will use technology to quickly generate graphs for each month looking for trends, patterns, or deviations over time.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The text discusses the presence of monomethyl mercury in California sea fog and how it is affecting nearby terrestrial environments. The article further explains the research that was conducted and discusses future studies. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an article that discusses the problem of declining honey bee populations in the United States and lists the possible factors involved. The text then describes the study on African honey bees to determine if there are genetic or physiological causes in their positive response to the Varroa parasite. Researchers are hoping the data they gather will help them improve breeding programs or management practices in U.S. bee populations. This lesson plan is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes the interactions between three different microorganisms and the implications on the food webs found in the oceans near Antarctica. Phytoplankton and bacteria are competing for food and resources in previously unknown ways. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses the consequences of climate change on living organisms in snow ecosystems, particularly those who live in the subnivium beneath the snow's surface. The text describes a new field of researchers called winter ecologists and their findings that show how climate change is causing lighter snows in some areas, diminishing the amount of insulation in the subnivium that many living organisms need to survive the winter. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes the effects of climate change on the Gulf of Maine and the cod population found there. Although quotas have been instituted to preserve the cod population, they have not been effective because of the unanticipated effects of global warming. The article explores possible solutions. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

The changing climate is an important topic for both scientific analysis and worldly knowledge. This lesson uses data collected by the National Snow and Ice Data Center to create and use statistical analysis as a tool to evaluate the sea ice loss. Students will use technology to quickly generate graphs for each month looking for trends, patterns or deviations over time.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity, students observe water movement patterns formed by melting ice cubes to make predictions about the movement of ocean water and the impacts on populations of aquatic organisms.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The article informs readers about the ozone layer and why it was larger and lasted longer in 2015 than in previous years. Although it was unusually large, the practices that have been followed since the Montreal Protocol was enacted have actually resulted in a long-term decrease in the size of the ozone hole. The text explains the aberration and also provides general information about the ozone layer and its function in protecting human life. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text addressing two issues, climate change and evolution. This informational text (designed to support reading in the content area) describes how the changing climate in the Arctic is contributing to evolutionary changing in populations of animals that live there. The lesson plan includes text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric along with ideas for extending the lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The text concerns lionfish, an invasive species in the Atlantic, and the environmental and economic damage the species threatens. The lesson plan includes text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Ideas for extending the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text on the work the USGS (United States Geological Survey) is doing to monitor the effects of the 2015-2016 winter season as it is impacted by El Niño. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

Type: Lesson Plan

Students conduct research to identify and explore environmental technologies in their area and to describe how these technologies are being used to shape the world around them.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan will enable students to explore the types of relationships that are found in ecosystems. Students will independently sort cards with no guidance from the teacher. As the lesson goes on, they will reassess their card groups in order to classify examples of symbiotic and other relationships. The lesson ends with students explaining each type of relationship and how individuals are affected by these interactions.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that describes the impact that local ibises have on their environment and the impact that humans have on the birds. The study examines how humans are changing the lifestyles of white ibises, which in turn causes the interactions between birds and humans to lead to a greater spread of disease. The author analyzes the positive and negative effects of interactions between organisms in an ecosystem. The lesson plan includes a text coding strategy, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, sample answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text selected to support reading in the content area. The article describes how wildlife is impacted by natural events and by humans, focusing on scientific data gathered in the Caribbean (specifically Abaco Island). It explains how humans impact the populations of species in ecosystems and why it is important for people to understand these interactions. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan is intended to support reading in the content area. In this lesson, students will read an informational text that describes how people in Bangladesh are using homestead farming to provide for their families, while simultaneously contributing to preserving local forests. With the help of USAID, farmers are using higher-yielding seeds and cultivating crops using organic fertilizers and composting. The demand for food grown without pesticides and nourished by compost helps the homestead farmers to make enough money to improve their standard of living, while helping the environment at the same time. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan is designed to support reading in the content area. In this lesson, students will read a text that describes the results of a long-term study of the changes in the crysophere on Niwot Ridge, which lies at the top of the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains. The text describes the ways in which the cryosphere has changed due to climate change, and it also describes some of the impacts on the ecosystem and explains how the researchers gathered their data. The lesson plan includes text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, sample answers, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that explains how climate change is leading to the melting of tropical glaciers in Peru and how this is negatively impacting the residents there. Students will examine how the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is assisting the Peruvians in developing strategies to deal with the impact. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read and analyze an informational text designed to support reading in the content area. This article describes the rise of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere and its likely effects on the planet, including climate change and ocean acidification. The contains an interactive graph that supports the text.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text examining scientists' studies of freshwater mussels in an attempt to develop methods for saving threatened species. Students will learn of the researchers' hope to be able to use other species that cohabitate local ecosystems to restore the threatened species. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text intended to support reading in the content area. The text explains how scientists worked with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to try and better understand the phosphorus cycle in marine ecosystems. The author points out that although the phosphorus cycle has been studied in the past, the work chronicled in the article has greatly expanded that understanding. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will examine how ecosystems change due to seasonal variations as they analyze an informational text explaining the process scientists used to collect data on daily changes in grasslands. Students will learn of the usefulness of this data in creating a model that allowed the scientists to predict how seasonal variation will change the grassland ecosystem. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text designed to support reading in the content area. The text is the transcript of an interview concerning the removal of marine debris from the coast of Alaska. The interview subject explains how marine debris needs to be researched, removed, and prevented. The lesson plan includes text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Ideas for extending the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read an informational text from the National Science Foundation. The text describes current research into the mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus, with the ultimate goal of using the research to predict and possibly prevent future outbreaks. Scientists are studying three towns in Ecuador by collecting data to help them discover the socioeconomic and environmental factors that put people most at risk for diseases carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, including the Zika virus. The scientists are also examining how virus transmission by these mosquitoes may be affected by climate change. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes text-dependent questions with an answer key, a writing prompt with a sample response, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson uses an informational text resource intended to support reading in the content area. The text informs readers about siphonophores, a relatively little-studied organism related to jellyfish and corals. It can grow as long as 160 ft. (49 m) and can move through the water column in a coordinated fashion, and knowledge of its locomotion may help humans propel themselves efficiently underwater. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan uses multicolor paper dots to model how events change a bird population over time. 

"You are a scientist observing a community of birds in the forest. Periodically, different events occur and have an effect on the populations of different birds. As a dedicated scientist and observer, you record all of these changes and watch how the community changes over time."

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson uses an NSF article to inform the reader about the influence of parasites on damselfish, a coral reef species. The author explains how his team determined the reason for the consistent behavior of damselfish leaving their aggressively guarded territory each morning to go to a cleaning station. He also explains how more questions arose throughout his investigation, questions like "Do these parasites carry other parasites that infect fishes?" and "Do these gnathiid parasites infect other species of fish?" This first-person account creates an interesting view of how marine research is done, including field work, lab work, and collaborating with other scientists. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This resource is about the difficulties of implementing environmental policies and laws that effect human behaviors and land in bordering countries. It uses a reading strategy called SLAM to analyze arguments and identify supporting details in written text.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. Students will read a short but complex article that describes the expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (a type of marine protected area) and the benefits of MPAs. The article identifies threats to coral reefs and how creating an MPA can help the coral reefs within this protected area and reefs in adjoining areas as well. The text provides some background information on how similar programs have helped other protected reefs near the Philippines, and both local and global threats to coral reef ecosystems are referenced. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses the issue of releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from carbon sink sites located in coastal habitats. This informational text is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how carbon that has been stored for potentially thousands of years is getting released into the atmosphere due to coastal habitat destruction of mangrove forests, salt marshes, and sea grass beds. The lesson plan includes text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. In this lesson, students will analyze a text that addresses the environmental problems caused by insecticides and explains how compounds (toxins) in spider venom may be used to selectively eliminate crop-destroying insects while leaving other insects, vertebrates, and the environment unharmed.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that describes the results of a recent study that has found a link between past ocean warming and the onset of "dead zones" in the Pacific Ocean off Oregon and Washington. This informational text is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, sample answers, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses an innovative conservation method designed to protect jaguars in Colombia. This informational text is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how predation of domestic cattle by jaguars in Colombia was becoming increasingly common due in part to deforestation. A conservation program was implemented to create a corridor for jaguars to pass through, keeping the jaguars separated from the farms and livestock and allowing them a natural pathway to cross through the Andes Mountains to eastern Colombia. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric. Numerous options to extend the lesson are also included.

Type: Lesson Plan

During this lesson, students will learn about green homes and how they allow for a more sustainable future. Students will learn how an individual family's carbon footprint can be reduced by designing their own green home. Students also complete a cost analysis of the expenses in constructing a green home and savings over time.

Type: Lesson Plan

Through schoolyard exploration, class discussion, and group projects, students will investigate common invasive species and their impact to Florida ecosystems. Students will recognize the impact various invasive species have on biodiversity and the consequences of the subsequent loss of biodiversity.

Type: Lesson Plan

During this active-learning lesson plan, students explore the water cycle through games, videos, and class discussion. For the final assessment, students will follow a drop of water as it travels through a Florida ecosystem.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is a hands-on, one-day lab that uses candies to simulate biological magnification. Students learn about energy transfer and DDT accumulation through tropic levels in an aquatic ecosystem.

Type: Lesson Plan

This resource includes a 5E lesson plan, a PowerPoint presentation on climate change, an interactive game, a student worksheet, and an engaging video link on the Arctic ecosystem.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will gather data from individual countries in order to calculate population density and create an age structure diagram for that country. They will use their age structure diagrams and information to predict how the population may change in the future.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students explore the world of population biology using the sea otter as a case study. The lesson involves reading technical reports from the US Fish and Wildlife Service as well as reading information about the sea otter from non-governmental organizations. Students are introduced to a specialized wildlife capture technique and monitoring of the endangered population through annual census data. Using that data students explore the limiting factors affecting sea otter growth and apply mathematical knowledge to analyze population growth curves. Students also produce an argument on whether the sea otter has met criteria and should be removed from the endangered species list.

Type: Lesson Plan

Jaguars lived throughout North America during the last Ice Age and were among some of the most common predators of the time period, with a range as far north west as Washington state and as far northeast as southern Pennsylvania. In modern times, jaguars ranged as far north as the South eastern United States, but the animals were considered dangerous and were hunted to extinction in America. Jaguar populations in the United States have recently been expanding and jaguars have been seen in places where they have been absent for over 40 years.

Students will learn how human interaction with the environment through hunting/over-hunting, legislation, and protected lands can affect species in North America.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity is a lab exercise where students look at the passing of water in cups and compare it to the loss of available energy as it moves through an ecosystem. Students will collect data, calculate efficiency, graph the data and respond to reflection questions to connect the data to what happens in an ecosystem. The end of the activity includes a connection to the 10% rule where only 10% of energy from one trophic level is available at the next level.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be learning about natural resources and the human impact on them. Specifically, students will discover where local water sources are and how much water is available within the community using research skills. Students will also design experiments to collect data and discover how residents of the community are using the water and how much they are using. Lastly, they will take the information they discover and the data they collect to hypothesize what the local human impact will be on the water source.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will design their own experiment to discover the human impact on ecosystems around their school environment.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore how climate change is already causing large changes in various ecosystems.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lab students will have a chance to explore the effects of limiting factors on a pair of ducks. Students will then examine why the limiting factors influences the carrying capacity of a population. Students will collect data and analyze it before drawing a conclusion about limiting factors and carrying capacity.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students create a food web using information about a group of non-existent species. They will use the food web to create food chains and a population pyramid that will show the flow of energy through the food web. Finally, they will explore how changing the population size of one species affects other species, often with unpredicted results. 

Type: Lesson Plan

This project provides students a hands on experience testing water samples for water quality. The goal is to increase student awareness of local water pollution problems and the human activity that impacts pond ecosystems. This project consists of pre quiz, a lab activity, and a research project.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be introduced to invasive species in the beginning of the lesson via YouTube video and guiding questions. The students will use digital and print media to explore (identify, describe and predict) the loss of biodiversity in several ecosystems due to the introduction of invasive exotic species.

The teacher/students will continue to identify and describe invasive species in a second YouTube video and a graphic organizer. The teacher will supervise students in small groups during this phase of the lesson.

The final product for students will be to complete a poster advertising a future "Air Potato Round Up" event sponsored by the local US Army Corp of Engineers.

Students will be guided by a rubric and have supplemental resources to access information for the poster project.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be introduced to the sandhills ecosystem, the commensalism of gopher tortoise burrows, and various other relationships between organisms. Class discussion, independent research, and presentations will then allow further development of the concepts of parasitism, competition, mutualism, commensalism, and predation.

Type: Lesson Plan

Purpose: To compare the species diversity of an area with high human impact vs. less human impact.

Students will complete an investigation which will allow them to use the Simpson's diversity index formula to evaluate and compare biodiversity around their school campus. Students will draw conclusions based on their data set.

This activity can has many applicable extensions based on student needs and interests. It also can be easily modified to fit certain time constraints, or physical limitations on varying school campuses.

Resource includes lab sheet which provides instructions for students to complete the investigation, worked example of the Simpson's Index formula, space for students to record their findings at the various investigation sites, as well as apply their data to the formula. Students will also draw conclusions based on their data set.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is intended to teach students regarding similarities and differences that are found within and between terrestrial and aquatic biomes. Students will become familiar with major terrestrial biomes and major aquatic biomes.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will show how energy flows through the ecosystem by constructing a food web, identifying, consumers, producers and decomposers, and the different trophic levels within it.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan will give the students the opportunity to use their prior knowledge about food chains and food webs. It will be student centered with the teacher merely being a facilitator the entire class. There are 2 different activities that the teacher has the option to select from. Any of the activities will definitely have the students learning and engaged the entire class.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan teaches students about the importance of freshwater, human impact on freshwater systems, and encourages students to modify their personal behavior based on information they learn in discussions and through individual research.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson introduces real-world examples of the consequences of the losses of biodiversity through a TED talk, detailed discussion, and group work.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson has been created to help students show you the pathway of energy transfer through trophic levels by reading assigned stories that take place in ecosystems.  It begins with a detailed lecture with embedded questions. Then they will create a poster in the end with a food web, isolated food chain, and energy pyramid. 

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson will build student awareness of renewable and non-renewable resources using a combination of discussion, a group simulation activity, and a group research project and presentation.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will examine how changes in an ecosystem result from environmental factors specifically demonstrating the consequences of climate change on sea turtles. The lesson is in four parts: 1) a fact finding/research component; 2) a group discussion and student presentation; 3) a multi-media component; and 4) a laboratory activity.

Type: Lesson Plan

Save Our Dunes is a literature-based research project suitable for 9-12 marine science or environmental science students. The lesson requires approximately 160 min. as well as computers/ internet access/ a printer. Students are guided through a series of brainstorming activities about the types of natural events and human activities that could affect dune ecosystems.

Students discuss the importance of dunes and what might happen if some dune organisms disappeared. Students then research background texts and use the research to create and defend a unique dune management plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

The governor of Florida has declared a state of emergency and is asking all of the residents to calculate their carbon footprint. Students need to submit a reference letter back to the governor explaining what their carbon footprint is as well as the steps they will take to reduce their carbon footprint. Students will then present their findings and evidence to reduce their carbon footprint at a city council meeting. This is an imaginary scenario and students will be graded on their written letters and speeches that are presented to the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson addresses the different factors responsible for the size and dynamics of populations. Growth and decline in population numbers are both addressed through presentation, discussions and a plant growth experiment extension.

Type: Lesson Plan

The underlying focus of this lesson is to provide students with documents designed to equip students with information that describes the following: solar policies guiding the current federal administration, basic current forms of solar energy use, costs and benefits of investments in solar energy, the planned infrastructure designed to make the transition to solar happen.

Type: Lesson Plan

Based on various factors, students will decide the best types of grass (sod) to grow in Florida and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson addresses the importance and role the environment plays in the distribution and abundance of organisms in a particular area. Specifically it looks at the real world example of Galapagos penguins and their distribution on the Galapagos Islands, and archipelago located on the equator. Students will investigate how a penguin species can survive in a predominantly tropical climate while maintaining the basic biological characteristics that most penguins require, such as colder temperatures. The lesson addresses the importance that ocean currents play in affecting the distribution and abundance of this species.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students use real world examples of sampling frog and salamander populations to explore the different characteristics of a population and the process of observation and inference. The lesson includes individual and group activities.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students explore the general definition of an ecosystem and reinforce the idea using ephemeral wetlands as a specific example. Students apply and share knowledge through presentations about specific Florida ecosystems.

Type: Lesson Plan

It's Not Waste—It's Matter is an MEA that gives students an opportunity to review matter, their physical properties, and mixtures. The MEA provides students to work in teams to resolve a real-life scenario creating a design method by which recyclable products are separated in order to further process.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

"To The Limit" MEA has students identify several factors that can affect a population’s growth. Students will examine photos to list limiting factors and discuss their impact on populations. As a group they will develop a solution to minimize the impact of pollution on fish population.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This 7E lesson plan is broken down into 3 lessons used to teach high school students in grades 9-12 about the characteristics used to describe populations. There are inquiry based and project based inquiry activities incorporated within the lesson. Students will also learn the difference between exponential and logistic growth by doing hands -on activities. A Power Point is used to guide the activities, and learning.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA gives the students an opportunity to learn about sustainability and then apply that knowledge to help EcoAthletica determine the location for their next sustainable tourism resort. The students will use a variety of criteria and the definition of sustainability and sustainable tourism to create a model for choosing locations.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about the Florida Panther, threats to it's survival and the role of wildlife corridors as an attempt to reduce roadway fatalities. Students will participate in a game simulating panther crossings, learn about panthers from a guest speaker or teacher, and participate in a mock town hall meeting evaluating the construction of wildlife corridors.

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this lesson plan is for students to be able to conduct mini-experiments that demonstrate what ocean acidification is and how it affects marine organisms. Students will perform mini-experiments and observe diagrams to help generate a definition of what ocean acidification is, why it is occurring, and how humans can reduce their impact.

Type: Lesson Plan

The purpose of this lesson is for students to conduct mini-experiments, demonstrating the physical properties of water. Students will collect data, diagram results, and generate a well-developed paragraph describing the various effects of water pressure and temperature.

Type: Lesson Plan

The focus of this MEA is oil spills and their effect on the environment. In this activity, students from a fictitious class are studying about the effects of an oil spill on marine ecosystems and have performed an experiment in which they were asked to try to rid a teaspoon of corn oil from a baking pan filled with two liters of water as thoroughly as possible in a limited timeframe and with limited resources. By examining, analyzing, and evaluating experimental data related to resource usage, disposal, and labor costs, students must face the tradeoffs that are involved in trying to preserve an ecosystem when time, money, and resources are limited.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will address a real world engineering problem in which they must work as a team to design a procedure to select the best material for cleaning up an oil spill. The main focus of this MEA is to recognize the consequences of a catastrophic event, and understand the environmental and economical impact based on data analysis. Students will conduct individual and team investigations in order to arrive at a scientifically sound solution to the problem.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson deals with understanding how non renewable resources are being depleted. It emphasizes the urgent need to discuss and implement the use of renewable resources since its much cheaper. A total appreciation of what the earth supply us with.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will discuss the costs and benefits of a variety of energy projects in a local area.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

The importance of knowing what drinking water contains. How to know what properties are present in different bottled water. Knowing the elements present in water that is advantageous to growth and development of many things in the body. To know what to be alert for in water and to understand the importance of water in general.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

The term "anthropogenic" describes something that is caused by human activity. Today we will focus on how our "throw-away" consumer lifestyle has detrimentally affected the environment, and we will look at possible solutions to preventing more harm to the environment and society.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will examine how to manage a rainforest while maintaining the living standards of a community.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA students compare data from different commercial floral preservatives. Students are asked to choose which is the best preservative for a certain floral arrangement.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Ocean Camouflage Colors explores the concept of light-wave absorption by ocean water and how it alters color perception and consequently the appropriate choice for protective coloration in the ocean. After exploring the students' prior knowledge of concepts like color perception, absorption and reflection, the class watches a video clip of a diver who takes a red apple ( and some colorful plastic) diving in the Caribbean. After some further discussion and the creation of a set of notes, students are given a more formal reading activity with 5 questions to complete independently (in most cases). This reading activity can be used in class or possibly as a homework exercise if time is short. Ocean Camouflage Colors was intended as an extension activity to support the 2 mini-labs in Ocean Camouflage. The reading portion can be used alone to bring students who were absent the day of the mini-labs "up to speed" OR it can be used as a review exercise prior to a test OR a homework activity for further practice.

Type: Lesson Plan

The environmental conditions in parks can influence the availability of food, light, space, and water and hence affect the growth and development of animals. It can become worse and lead to endangerment and extinction of various species. The following are areas in nature that can be affected: lakes, plants, animal life in and outside of water and many more.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will learn about the biomagnification of mercury in aquatic ecosystems.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students must choose which type of automotive power plant is the best choice for a car company to use in its upcoming eco-friendly model. The students must make this decision based on characteristics of each power plant, such as efficiency, production cost, and production energy. Students must decide what they feel makes the car most “ecological.” They may choose a very low-polluting car that is very difficult and costly to produce, or one that has more emissions, but uses very limited resources to develop. This lesson could be used to either as an introduction or a follow-up to a lesson about ecology, energy use and conservation, or human environmental impacts.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will design a completely imaginary ecosystem that is comprised of producers, consumers, secondary consumers, and decomposers. Students will design the ecosystem by determining the location of the ecosystem and the biotic and abiotic factors in the ecosystem. The students will also include the number of organisms at each trophic level, and any adaptations the organisms must have to live in their ecosystem.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will complete two mini-labs to explore how colors change as you descend in an aquatic environment. Based on their observations they are challenged to design a camouflage pattern which could be used below the upper, sun-lit portions of the ocean, AND defend their design decisions in written form.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using short videos, articles and a scavenger hunt, students will learn the process of genetically modifying crops and understand the benefits and drawbacks of genetically modified foods.

Type: Lesson Plan

This resource includes a 5E lesson plan, a PowerPoint presentation on the carbon cycle, student worksheet, and links for engaging videos on the carbon cycle.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson uses an article from the National Science Foundation to inform the reader about the surprising results of a study done on coral reefs in Palau. The article discusses the effects that ocean acidification normally has on coral reefs and then describes the unique situation encountered in Palau. Scientists discovered coral reefs thriving in waters with a lower pH than normal. The article discusses how scientists are unsure of why these coral reefs are thriving, but future studies could reveal the answers. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore and assess the implications various human and environmental factors are having on the yellow-legged frog population in California. Students will use knowledge of percentages to calculate population size and will complete research to explore the affects of human impact on the environment and the process of adaptation through natural and artificial selection.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

Food web
Energy Pyramid
Producers
Consumers

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about trophic levels, energy relationships, and how producers, consumers, and decomposers interact.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that discusses new evidence regarding the status of the Arctic ground squirrel. The species was previously thought to be an invasive species on Chirikof Island off the coast of Alaska, but new evidence calls this belief into question. The lesson plan includes a vocabulary note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

This resource provides a lesson plan, a student assignment, and a power point presentation on invasive species with examples.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about certain how individuals can create threats to the environment, as well as ways to limit these threats. Students will evaluate their own school and its environmental impact as well as ways to reduce negative impact.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze an informational text that addresses the effects of overfishing on coral reef systems. The text explains how scientists have found that overfishing removes many of the algae-eating fish, and this causes an increase in algae growth, which leads to a microbial increase, and finally leads to coral mortality. This lesson is designed to support reading in the content area. The lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

The Plants versus Pollutants MEA provides students with an open-ended problem in which they must work as a team to design a procedure to select the best plants to clean up certain toxins. This MEA requires students to formulate a phytoremediation-based solution to a problem involving cleaning of a contaminated land site. Students are provided the context of the problem, a request letter from a client asking them to provide a recommendation, and data relevant to the situation. Students utilize the data to create a defensible model solution to present to the client.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze two informational texts intended to support reading in the content area. The primary article discusses social behavior in mandrills that helps them know when to avoid certain individuals in their community in order to prevent becoming infected with parasites. A second related text discusses adaptations in Atlantic killifish that allow them to survive in water polluted by high levels of toxins. By reading and synthesizing both texts, students will learn about adaptations that enable survival of species. This lesson plan includes a note-taking guide, text-dependent questions, a writing prompt, answer keys, and a writing rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA lesson, students will come up with a strategy to choose among proposals for managing wolf populations in the state of Wyoming. They will make an evidence-based recommendation to the state based on the costs and benefits of maintaining a healthy wolf population outside of Yellowstone National Park.

Type: Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) STEM Lesson

See how non-native species can impact ecosystem biodiversity to create problems for native species in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how phosphorus pollution can lead to changes in the Everglades. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Examine migration and factors affecting both population sizes and distributions of key species in the Kenyan savannah with this interactive tutorial. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore examples of mutualism, competition, and predation in the Kenyan savannah ecosystem. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore living and nonliving factors affecting populations of ants in Kenya and learn a bit about the importance of the acacia tree in this savannah ecosystem. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how living organisms can be organized into food webs and how energy is transferred through a food web from producers to consumers to decomposers. This interactive tutorial also includes interactive knowledge checks.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore the impact of methylmercury pollution in the Everglades wetland ecosystem.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore species interdependence focusing on roles played by periphyton in the Everglades ecosystem with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how individual and societal choices affect sustainability and explore ways that you can reduce your impact on the environment with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn the definition of "sustainability" and understand how our throw away consumer lifestyle has affected the environment in a negative way. In this interactive tutorial, you'll explore possible solutions to prevent further harm to the environment.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore how environmental changes at different time scales affect living organisms within ecosystems in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore population interactions and how those interactions can affect population size in this interactive tutorial. You'll also learn about competition, predation and symbiosis.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how the distribution of aquatic life forms is affected by light, temperature, and salinity with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

In this video, fire ecologist Kevin Robertson explains the role of fire in the carbon cycle in fire-dependent ecosystems.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

<p>In this video, fire ecologist Monica Rother describes tree ring research and applications for land management.</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

<p>Patrick&nbsp;Milligan&nbsp;discusses biotic and abiotic factors that affect populations&nbsp;of ants in the Kenyan&nbsp;savannah.</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Patrick Milligan discusses the impetus for organisms to migrate in the Kenyan savannah.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Patrick Milligan shares his research on invasive ant species in the Kenyan savannah.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Patrick Milligan discusses the relationship of organisms in the Kenyan savannah.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Sandra Brooke, from FSU Marine Lab, talks about undersea canyon ecosystems.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dean Grubbs of Florida State Universisty, discusses the impact bycatch has on ocean life.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dean Grubbs explains how different types of trash, like plastics, ends up in the ocean and how they become a detriment to marine life.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Enric Cortes discuses shark population data collected and the use of data to influence policy decisions.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Fish Ecologist, Dean Grubbs, discusses how using statistical sampling can help determine legal catch rates for fish that may be endangered.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

<p>NOAA Fishery management relies on histograms to show patterns and trends over time of fishery data.</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Andrea Larsen describes interactions between bacteria and fish that allow both to thrive.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Andrea Larsen explains how fish microbiota are connected to fish health for aquaculture applications.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Erinn Muller explains how coral health research at Mote Marine Laboratory is driving policy decisions regarding coral reef restoration in Florida. 

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Melodie Naja of The Everglades Foundation describes research and modeling programs designed to better understand origins and localized levels of phosphorous pollution in the Everglades.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Melodie Naja describes the link between agricultural pollutants and the bioaccumulation of methylmercury in the fresh surface waters of the Everglades.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Watch as Dr. Stephen E. Davis, III explains how excess phosphorous pollution is impacting the Everglades.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Periphyton plays several vital roles in the Everglades. Watch now to find out more!

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Erinn Muller describes limiting factors affecting coral health.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Mahmood Shivji explains how rapid genetic testing of shark tissue samples is used to address societal pressures on marine environments.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Nico Wienders from the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science at Florida State University discusses factors related to currents and energy transfer in the ocean.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

The tide is high! How can we statistically prove there is a relationship between the tides on the Gulf Coast and in a fresh water spring 20 miles from each other?

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Statistical analysis played an essential role in using microgravity sensors to determine location of caves in Wakulla County.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Pick up the pace and learn how snails fit into the Florida food web!

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Tom Miller explains the major roles in food web communities and describes a model system for exploring energy transfer between organisms.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Bill McShea from the Smithsonian Institution discusses population characteristics related to large animal species.

This video was created in collaboration with the Okaloosa County SCIENCE Partnership, including the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard University.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Bill McShea from the Smithsonian Institution discusses how he works to ameliorate negative human impacts on the enviroment to maintain healthy biodiversity.

This video was created in collaboration with the Okaloosa County SCIENCE Partnership, including the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard University.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Roads are a great resource for humans, but what do they mean for fragile ecosystems? Find out in this video.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Humans impact the environment in a number of ways. Learn more about how we interact with nature!

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Learn all the information about coral and corral that knowledge!

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

This teaching activity rocks! Learn about aquatic ecosystems and hands-on learning!

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

What lurks beneath the water's surface? Lots of creatures, big and small! Learn how mangroves grow in an unusual environment and support many other organisms both in and out of the water.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Too many ideas about ocean currents swirling around in your head? Get into the flow of things with this video.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

This biologist will brighten your day with a discussion on colorful (or not) ways that marine organisms have adapted to ocean lighting.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Do you think you know oil there is to know about human impact on the environment? Let this biologist explain.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

An oil scientist explains how crude oil is formed and how it behaves in the environment.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Sink into science as a biologist floats a few thoughts about physiological adaptations marine animals use to stay at the right depth.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Scientists can be superheroes when it comes to saving rivers! Watch this video to find out more.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Lionfish and other species are roaring past our native populations. Learn more.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Watch as this scientist shines a light on a type of pollution that affects sea turtles.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Don't get stuck in a loop on ocean currents. Let this oceanography student explain.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Don't cry over spilled oil. Take action instead! Learn how students can help scientists who are studying what happens to spilled oil and over time how it affects the environment.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Learn how the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution experts track oil-soaked sand patties on the Gulf Coast to monitor possible negative environmental impacts from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

<p>Invasive lionfish are taking a bite out of the ecosystem of Biscayne Bay. Biologists are looking for new ways to remove them, including encouraging recreational divers to bite back!</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Agriculture takes teamwork! Watch now to learn more about how plants, bacteria, and viruses interact.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

In this video, Jim Cox describes a sampling method for estimating the density of dead trees in a forest ecosystem.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

In this video, Mark Tancig explains how decomposers are vital to the process of composting.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Ecologist, Rebecca Means, describes the process of determining remote locations in the USA and developing quantitative questions that are appropriate.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

<p>NOAA&nbsp;Scientist Doug Devries discusses the differences between fishery independent surveys and fishery independent surveys. &nbsp;Discussion&nbsp;includes trap sampling as well as camera sampling. Using&nbsp;graphs to show changes in population of red snapper.</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

<p>Deep sea shark researcher, Chip Cotton, discusses the need for a Power Analysis to determine the critical sample size in order to make inferences on how oil spills affect shark populations.</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

<p>Will Ryan describes how linear regression models contribute towards his research on sea anemones.</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Coleman Mackie discusses longleaf pine forests as renewable resources.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Coleman Mackie discusses the process of how he salvages pre-cut timbers from the bottom of river beds, the importance of ring density, buoyancy and the uses of the recovered logs.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Glass artist Russel Scaturro explains how fine control of gas flow aids efforts to minimize his carbon footprint toward a larger goal of environmentally-conscious fabrication methodology. 

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Jeff Dutrow discusses how the interactions of spheres impacts fish behaviors including tides, currents, and seasons.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

<p>COAPS oceanographer Dmitry Dukhovskoy describes the process used to mathematically model eddy shedding in the Gulf of Mexico.</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

<p>This marine biologist discusses her use of graphical representations to help determine the most cost-effective management strategies for sea turtle conservation.</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Charles Carpenter gives an overview of what it is like to own an electric car.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

<p>You'll need to bring your computer skills and math knowledge to estimate oil volume and rate as it seeps from the ocean floor. Dive in!</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

In this video, Molly Jameson explains how worm composting can work for the classroom.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Alicia Brown describes the role of sea grass beds in the environment.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Sometimes science means going outside. Get going!

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Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Listen in as this teacher explains how students can do their own research to can help them understand invasive species and the dangers they pose to an ecosystem.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Dr. Jeff Holmes from the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology discusses the Encyclopedia of Life as a teaching resource for concepts regarding food webs.

This video was created in collaboration with the Okaloosa County SCIENCE Partnership including the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard University.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Wade into science with students by cleaning up model oil spills!

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Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

It's all connected. Check out this food web lesson idea.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Take a hike! This teacher presents an idea for students to learn about nature by collecting and categorizing specimens.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Technology and web design can help students communicate information about an endangered species.

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Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Learn about wetlands and how they meet the needs of various inhabitants. Learn more about how to learn more at .

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Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

This tutorial is designed to help secondary science teachers learn how to integrate literacy skills within their curriculum. This tutorial focuses on teaching students how to integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information in different media. The focus on literacy across content areas is designed to help students independently build knowledge in different disciplines through reading and writing.

Type: Professional Development

This tutorial is designed to help secondary science teachers learn how to integrate literacy skills within their curriculum. This tutorial focuses on evaluating the reasoning and evidence of an argumentative claim. The focus on literacy across content areas is designed to help students independently build knowledge in different disciplines through reading and writing.

Type: Professional Development

This tutorial is designed to help secondary science teachers learn how to incorporate literacy skills into their science curriculum. This tutorial will demonstrate how to help students identify an author's purpose and point of view as well as the question the author seeks to address. The focus on literacy across content areas is intended to help foster students' reading, writing, and thinking skills in multiple disciplines.

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Type: Professional Development

This tutorial is designed to help secondary science teachers learn how to incorporate literacy skills into their science curriculum. This tutorial will demonstrate how to help students identify an author's purpose in a text and identify any unresolved important issues. The focus on literacy across content areas is intended to help foster students' reading, writing, and thinking skills in multiple disciplines.

Click "View Site" to open a full-screen version.

Type: Professional Development

Students will create a management plan to conserve an imperiled species in the state of Florida.

Type: Project

This resource is a student-led project surrounding human impact on the environment in the context of the nature of science (problem solving).

Type: Project

Students will design an investigation that compares a characteristic of two populations of the same species. Students will collect data in the field and analyze the data using descriptive statistics.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this activity, the students will analyze the impact of humans on the coral reef ecosystem as a result of human social, political, and economic activities.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will identify the steps of how a bill becomes a law. Students will demonstrate presentation and debating skills during a mock session of congress. Students will identify causes as to why animals become threatened or endangered.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will be able to understand the effects of introducing geographically non-native species to a new environment.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will be able to use a world map or globe to locate the distribution of at least 10 endangered species and describe the current threats and conservation efforts concerning one endangered species of animal or plant.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will be able to show four or more West Indian manatee habitats on a map and describe and/or illustrate yearly movements of manatees along the Florida coastline. Students will be able to describe the top three threats to manatees and create an educational campaign to target the causes of the threats.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will use the Internet to determine the population status of the Florida manatee and will use the information to debate the extinction or recovery of the manatee.

Type: Teaching Idea

The student will describe various adaptations and how they enable the organism to survive in its habitat.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will be able to describe the sources of discarded monofilament fishing line and its hazard to wildlife. Students will plan a clean-up campaign in their area. As an option, students can carry out the campaign. During the campaign, students will document the procedure, record the amount of line collected and write a "planning book" to become a resource for others to use.

Type: Teaching Idea

Given a common environmental situation, students will research available literature or other resources for more information, and logically argue a viewpoint. They will be able to demonstrate a real-life decision-making process and evaluate its outcome.

Type: Teaching Idea

Given a current environmental situation, the student will be able to gather information, organize, analyze, and present data. They will participate in a decision-making process.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will identify threats to raptor populations and conceptually model situations related to population dynamics.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will calculate population size, carrying capacity, annual change in population size, and maximum rate of population increase of different raptor species.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the effects of the wolf population in Yellowstone National Park, as well as how other organisms are linked in this food web. As the wolf population decreases, the elk population increases due to lack of predation. The larger elk population decimates the willow population, a prime source of food and building for the beaver. As beaver population decreases, streams no longer deposit enough sediments. This then changes the willow population, because they are no longer able to take root in the stream.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. This article describes the discovery of evidence that contradicts the notion that a specific species of squirrel was introduced to an Alaskan ecosystem. It further discusses the implication of the new evidence and challenges the current meaning of invasive species.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes a mechanism of behavioral avoidance to help maintain health between mandrills. Mandrills use their olfactory senses in order to determine which of their peers to avoid due to parasitic infections.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource supports reading in the content area. The article implies that human interactions that raise the global temperature (climate change) can have disastrous effects on coral reefs (coral bleaching). The article explains how a discovery of other organisms filling a previously occupied niche may help to rebuild and sustain coral reefs.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how jellyfish populations in the Bering Sea have been impacted by different limiting factors like temperature and food availability. Scientists suspect that increasing water temperatures affect the development of polyps in multiple ways. In addition, the study is a multi-disciplinary effort between experts in marine ecology, statistics, and the mathematical geosciences. It is thought such models may be applied to other marine and land-based ecological studies and the spread of infectious diseases.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes the carbon cycle and its dynamic nature. Carbon dioxide is recycled by plants and other autotrophs, considered "sinks." Animals and heterotrophs give off carbon dioxide as a by-product of the process of cellular respiration. In addition, human activity, accelerated by industrial activity, produces more carbon dioxide than autotrophs can handle, leading to global warming.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Polar bears are among the animals most affected by the seasonal and year-to-year decline in Arctic sea ice, because they rely on ice for essential activities such as hunting, traveling, and breeding. A new research study has confirmed this finding.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses how a drought affected the savanna ecosystem found in southern Kenya during 2009. It further addresses how baboons are affected later in life based on the conditions when they are born and the social status they are born into. Based on the research on baboons, the implications on human health are discussed in the latter portion of the article.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The National Science Foundation article discusses research on the identification and the effects of the Sea Star Associated Densovirus. The article further explains the importance of research on this virus because of its impact on the tidal ecosystems on the Pacific West Coast.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource supports reading in the content area. The article discusses the spread of White Nose Syndrome in North American bats and how bat colonies are being affected in both size and number. The article also provides a comparison between European and North American bat colonies suffering with this disease.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. It is designed to introduce the ideas and the research history of bioremediation studies performed by the USGS scientists. This text begins with an environmental spill and moves into the progress gained in cost effective and safe cleanup of toxic substances from the environment using research completed by the USGS.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses how Caribbean bat species are ideal for understanding the implications of extinction and its effects on species. The article suggests that the geographic isolation of these species helps scientists to understand the causes of extinction and how long species may need to recover from natural and human impact.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Human activities, mainly the use of fertilizer, are overloading ecosystems with nitrogen. Nitrogen is a dynamic cycle that is mediated by bacteria. Humans have been contributing to the nitrogen cycle through synthetic nitrogen fixation. This has resulted in eutrophication of aquatic systems and greenhouse gas emissions. Methods to increase the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer use are discussed.

Type: Text Resource

This resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text explains the new Zealand government's plan to eliminate invasive predators from the country by 2050 and the challenges that may be involved in reaching this goal. The article also describes the effects the predators have had on the native wildlife to date.

Type: Text Resource

This resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how for the first time bees have been declared endangered in the United States. Seven species of Hawaiian yellow-faced bees have been decimated by invasive species and habitat loss and are now federally protected. The text goes on to describe an innovative way scientists want to help the bees.

Type: Text Resource

This  resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the discovery of the white-tailed prairie dog murdering ground squirrels in cold blood in order to eliminate the competition for food. The article further highlights how the killings of the squirrels benefit the prairie dog offspring.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article describes a recent development that will allow scientists to help farmers determine the precise amount of nitrogen needed for their corn and soybean fields. The research was conducted by two scientists at the University of Illinois. If farmers can pinpoint the exact amount of fertilizer needed, reducing the amount that runs off or leaches into the water supply, the better for all living organisms on Earth.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article describes the effects the Panama Canal expansion may have on the number of invasive species introduced to the East Coast and Gulf Coast of the United States. The article explains how ballast water and wet surface areas are the two ways the invasive species can travel from port to port.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how accidental wastewater spills from fracking have caused soil and water contamination in North Dakota. Researchers from Duke University have been able to prove the contamination comes directly from the North Dakota wells. The text also explains how almost 10,000 wells have been drilled in North Dakota over the past decade, and how the state began producing more than 1 million barrels of oil a day in 2014. Much of the increased production has come through hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text discusses the design of an artificial intelligence (AI) technology called PAWS that was designed as a tool to help wildlife officials stop poachers. PAWS uses data about previous poaching activities and analyzes the data to create smart and efficient routes for wildlife officers to use while looking for poaching activity.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the research conducted on the status of the Adelie penguin population and what might happen to it by the end of the century. Using statistical models, researchers looked at current data and used future climate projections to determine the status of the Adelie’s habitat.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the research conducted on the amounts of methyl mercury found in fog samples. Two different studies were conducted, and both indicate that fog is a major contributor and source of the presence of methyl mercury in an inland environment.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article answers the question of whether volcanic activity or human activities contribute more to global warming. With evidence and support, they easily conclude human activities are the heaviest contributor

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the problem of declining honey bee populations in the United States and lists the possible factors involved. The text then describes the study on African honey bees to determine if there are genetic or physiological causes in their response to the Varroa parasite. Researchers are hoping the data they gather will help them improve breeding programs or management practices in U.S. bee populations.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the relationship between phytoplankton and different bacteria in the Southern Ocean. The text goes on to describe the results and how they changed previous ideas and assumptions about the needs of phytoplankton.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes a new field of researchers called winter ecologists who are examining the effects of warmer winters caused by climate change. The text describes how snow creates an insulating layer for the living organisms below the snow. When that insulating layer is thinner, due to increased global temperatures, the organisms suffer colder temperatures, stress, and even death. Winter ecologists are trying to learn more about this layer, which is called the subnivium, and how organisms are responding to these changes.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the decline in the population of cod found in the Gulf of Maine. The author writes that fishery managers have set strict quotas on cod, with little positive change. Research indicates climate change has been a major factor in the steady decline of cod, and the text explains why.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article describes a recent study that helped researchers prove a link between overfishing to increased growth of fleshy algae to microbialization. This increase in microbes causes a depletion of the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water. In addition, the increase in microbial growth can spread disease. In conclusion, microbialization is found to be a major contributing factor to the destruction and decline of coral reef health.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the impact that ocean acidification typically has on coral reefs in water with low pH. The text goes on to describe the surprising results of a study done on coral reefs in Palau that are thriving despite living in water with low pH. Researchers must conduct further tests to determine why this is happening, but it gives them hope that some coral reefs might be able to withstand future levels of ocean acidification.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text provides information about 2015's ozone hole, showing why it is larger this year and lasted longer than previous years. The article shows how the protective ozone layer changes with the seasons and is different each year. Although the hole is large this year, the practices that have been followed since the Montreal Protocol was enacted have allowed the ozone hole to slowly decrease, and it should be back to 1980 levels by 2070.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text presents a picture of how and why animals and people living at the Arctic will start to change (due to changing climate with melting sea ice) in order to keep surviving.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains how lionfish, an invasive species in Atlantic waters, is threatening ecosystems there. The voracious diet of the lionfish will likely affect native species and the commercial fishing industry.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. El Niño is known to cause weather disturbances, however, its impact on winter storms causes a slew of additional complications when coupled with rising ocean levels instigated by global warming. The USGS reviews the effects, efforts to study the phenomena, and hints at ways to plan strategically for them in this timely article.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how people in Bangladesh are using homestead farming to provide for their families, while simultaneously contributing to preserving local forests. With the help of USAID, farmers are using higher-yielding seeds and cultivating crops using organic fertilizers and composting. The demand for food grown without pesticides and nourished by compost helps the homestead farmers to make enough money to improve their standard of living, while helping the environment at the same time.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes the results of a study that show declines in ice—glaciers, permafrost, subsurface ice, and lake ice—at the Niwot Ridge in the Rocky Mountains over the past thirty years. The text describes that the researchers attribute the declines in ice to climate change. Using the results of their study, the scientists also make a startling prediction that the Arikaree Glacier in the Rocky Mountains will disappear in twenty years.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article focuses on scientific data gathered in the Caribbean (specifically Abaco Island). The authors describe how wildlife is impacted by natural events and by humans, and why it is important for people to understand these interactions.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes the interactions between local wildlife (white ibises in Florida) and humans, and the impact that these interactions have on both species. The article presents both benefits as well as potential drawbacks to the close proximity of humans and white ibises. The article also describes how scientists are studying these interactions and their effects.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article describes the process the researchers use to develop a detailed model of how they predict climate change will occur in the future and what effect this will have on North American grasslands. The author explains how climate change impacts ecosystems while also providing an example of using models in science to predict future events/outcomes.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article explains the impact of scientists’ studies on a number of freshwater mussel species and their genetic makeup. The intent of the research was to find ways of protecting threatened and endangered species of mussels. The article explains that the genetic similarities of species that cohabitate a river could lead to development of new methods of protecting mussel species.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text explains how scientists are working with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to explore the role of phosphorus, and specifically the phosphorus cycle, in marine ecosystems. The author explains what is known about the topic, what research was done, what conclusions were drawn, and the importance of the scientists' findings.

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This informational text is resource designed to help support reading in the content area. The article discusses the impact of climate change (global warming) on the tropical glaciers in Peru. It focuses on providing a description of how Peruvians depend upon the glaciers and the impact that the melting of the glaciers could have in the future. The author also emphasizes USAID's role in working with Peruvians to help them develop plans to deal with the possible loss of the glaciers

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text is a transcript of an interview with Peter Murphy, the Alaska Regional Coordinator of the NOAA Marine Debris Program. The interview highlights some of the challenges of removing marine debris in Alaska, specific projects, and goals for future work.

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This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article describes the possible effects on the planet due to the rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, especially the implications for climate change.

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This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes how predation of domestic cattle by jaguars in Colombia was becoming increasingly common due in part to deforestation. A conservation program was implemented to create a corridor for jaguars to pass through, keeping the jaguars separated from the farms and livestock and allowing them a natural pathway to cross through the Andes Mountains to eastern Colombia.

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This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes current research into the mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus, with the ultimate goal of using the research to predict and possibly prevent future outbreaks. Scientists are studying three towns in Ecuador by collecting data to help them discover the socioeconomic and environmental factors that put people most at risk for diseases carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, including the Zika virus. The scientists are also examining how virus transmission by these mosquitoes may be affected by climate change.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes the results of a recent study that has found a link between past ocean warming and the onset of "dead zones" in the Pacific Ocean off Oregon and Washington.

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This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The article relates the findings of a study by four scientists about siphonophores, a relatively little-studied organism related to jellyfish and corals. Their study focuses on this organism's ability to move through the water column in a coordinated fashion and how this knowledge may help humans propel themselves efficiently underwater.

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This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text informs readers about the influence of parasites on damselfish, a coral reef species. The author explains how his team determined the reason for the consistent behavior of damselfish leaving their aggressively guarded territory each morning to go to a cleaning station. Through the scientist describing how his research lead to new observations that lead to new questions and research, the text is a good example of how scientific investigations are conducted, including working collaboratively and communicating important results.

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This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. Through discussion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in the central Pacific, this text offers perspective on how political factors can greatly influence ecology. The article explains some of the benefits of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) like the Marine National Monument, which often include pristine coral reefs and exceptional biodiversity, using the example of MPAs in the Philippines. It also briefly describes global threats to MPAs.

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This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. A biochemist is studying spider venom to see if it can be used to control agricultural pests. The venom is harmless to vertebrates but kills insects that may kill crops. If successful, the spider venom could be used to replace chemical pesticides that are harmful to humans, wildlife, and the environment. In addition, insects that destroy crops are becoming resistant to these chemical insecticides but would not be resistant to bioinsecticides.

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This informational text resource is designed to support reading in the content area. The text describes different ecosystems that store carbon, like forests, and goes into how carbon is stored more efficiently in coastal ecosystems. The text goes on to advocate for conserving and protecting our coastal ecosystems to keep the carbon stored and prevent the carbon from being released into the atmosphere to further impact the planet through climate change. The text also explores other benefits for conserving coastal ecosystems.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone has resulted in many changes in the ecosystem. Before the wolves were reintroduced, large elk populations destroyed aspen and willow trees, preventing their reproduction. Since wolves were reintroduced, elk have had to change their browsing behavior, allowing some vegetation to recover in certain areas. This has affected many other species, including beavers, birds, fish and insects.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. When corals are stressed, they release their algal partners and turn white, a phenomenon called coral bleaching. This occurs when they are under stress from warming waters or other environmental factors. Researchers monitored reefs in the Seychelles during and after coral bleaching events, and found that several factors, including depth of growth, branching shape, nutrient levels, and amount of fish grazing accurately predicted whether reefs were likely to recover from these events. Human impacts such as sediment or nutrient run-off also affect the corals' resiliency.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. What is the Indian River Lagoon?  Why is the lagoon an estuary of “national significance?” What are some of the environmental challenges the lagoon faces? These questions represent interesting and relevant content explored in this informative text about one of Florida’s most important estuaries. The text also has the potential to be used as an anchor text to segue into further areas of inquiry such as the role of water management districts, restoration initiatives, and the death of wildlife on the Indian River Lagoon.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Is large-scale production of biofuel possible? The author attempts to answer this key question. As the world seeks to decrease its dependence on petroleum fuel by genetically engineering certain crops, there is the potential to commercially produce biofuels. Plant sources for bioenergy, the harnessing of plant bioenergy, and the sustainability of the industry are all issues considered in this text. The article discusses both environmental and economic consequences.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Did you know that climate has two not-so-nice children? Meet El Niño and La Niña, the "boy" and "girl" spawned by the global climate every 3-7 years. They can give the world a climate that's quite troublesome, depending on which one is causing the disturbance.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Invasive species are a global threat to biodiversity for many reasons. This article outlines the scope of the problem, explaining how invasive species are impacting native flora and fauna and offering potential solutions to prevent their spread.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Wastewater is being dumped into rivers, streams, and oceans, affecting not only the marine environment but also water quality in general. Better treatment processes are needed before this contaminated waste reaches our waterways. The article points out the problems faced by specific countries and their need for better management.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Students at a university in Peru have erected a billboard near a construction site that filters air. It uses water to rid the air of pollutants like dust, bacteria, and even metal particles. This innovative billboard purifies the same amount of air as 12,000 trees! The billboard uses recycled air and takes little energy to work. The embedded video shows the impact on the construction workers who are near the billboard.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Polar bears are highly specialized to living on sea ice in the Arctic including their dependence on two species of seals. Therefore, scientists expect polar bears to be greatly affected by climate changes due to their habitat (reduced sea ice) and prey availability. These effects include increased movement, fewer den areas, and decreased prey access, which are predicted to have a variety of negative consequences on polar bears in the future.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes various species of penguins that are affected by warming climates in Antarctica. Tracing the penguins' genetic ancestry back to the last ice age suggests that some species' populations are increasing, while other species' populations are diminishing. This is likely due to the effects of climate change on the penguins' main food sources.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which summarizes the many environmental, climatic, social, and economic effects of global warming that are already occurring and will continue to take place. The report also predicts the environmental and socio-economic effects of climate change that will occur in the upcoming decades, especially those that will affect poorer countries.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Our Earth’s temperatures have increased over time and scientists are attributing this to human activities.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article expresses its author's opinion about culling animals in zoos, which is reducing a population by selective slaughter. The argument supports the idea of culling as a way to control inbreeding and to control the breeding of animals that will not help the species stay adaptable and immune to diseases.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article is about how agricultural pesticides are contributing to the biodiversity loss of invertebrates. Research teams examined streams in broad regions to study the effects of pesticides in those ecosystems. Up to 42% fewer species were discovered in streams that were highly contaminated. In another study, it was found that neonicotinoid insecticides accumulate in the soil at levels that kill soil invertebrates.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes the causes and potential effects of toxin cyanobacteria blooms that have occurred in bodies of water in the United States. The blooms are affecting water quality, killing wildlife, and threatening human health (including causing death and illness) across the United States.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Smog began appearing in Los Angeles in the 1940s and became a problem for decades. Scientists were able to figure out the cause of smog only after intensive study of organic compounds in the air. After discovering that nitrogen oxides from car exhaust were a primary ingredient in smog, it took years of policy changes and industrial innovation to reduce air pollution and resolve the smog issue in LA and worldwide.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article examines how the marine environment is affected by shipping containers that accidentally fall to the seafloor. It explores how the containers can be harmful but can also be a benefit to the ecosystem depending on factors such as what the containers are carrying and what the containers are made of.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The collective efforts of many scientists enable us to measure how fast Earth's sea levels are rising, past and present. Presently, satellites are measuring sea levels and have showed significant increases in the last 20 years due to glacial melting and the expansion of sea water. Evidence from the past shows sea levels have risen and fallen steadily with the ice ages, until a sudden spike around the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Coastal areas and islands are expected to be most affected by rising sea levels.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Zombies may seem like science fiction, but that's exactly what scientists are calling the behavior in some species of ants. This article looks at the parasitic relationship between a form of fungus and carpenter ant that causes this zombie-like behavior. It also looks at a further complication to the process as the parasitic fungus has a parasite of its own.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Hurricane Sandy was one of the biggest storms to hit New York City in recent history. Intense wind and rain caused major damage all over the city and surrounding areas. The storm exposed how over development of reclaimed land and lack of political action to protect the city has led to major flooding—and probably will again unless action is taken.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Rain and runoff carry pollutants from human activity to the sea in places like Tacoma, Washington. The city has devised a scientific process for identifying sources and pathways of pollution and is making headway in reducing pollutant buildup and damage. By utilizing forensic methods to find the source of pollution and fining polluters, Tacoma is winning the war.

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The Galapagos Islands provide some of the most unique flora and fauna in the world, and the islands have served as a hot spot for modern evolutionary theory, thanks to the work of Charles Darwin. However, the island's unique biodiversity is threatened by invasive species. This article delves into the struggle we face to preserve the species which are native to the islands.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article discusses a troublesome milestone in climate science: the CO₂ levels in Earth's atmosphere stayed above 400 ppm for the entire month of April 2014. The article discusses the significance of this measurement and how CO₂ levels impact the atmosphere.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists are looking into newer, futuristic technologies to help humans do less damage to our environment. This article focuses on three very exciting solutions—leafy walls, water conservation, and solar cells—that are close to becoming realities.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes how scientists have discovered a method of transferring wave energy into electrical energy by the use of manmade seafloor "carpets." After the article explains how the process works, it lists the potential benefits of utilizing this method on a large scale.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article is based on a climate change report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It provides another perspective on climate change from the IPCC and includes evidence and possible solutions to the problems caused by man-made pollution.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text explains how some bees living in an urban environment have started to build their nests out of human-made materials such as plastics. Furthermore, the bees seem to prefer the materials to plants! Scientists theorize that these nests may actually prove to be safer for the bees, as they are stronger and protect against parasites.

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This website contains units focused on Earth's systems and cycles, which illustrate a sequence for learning the concepts through reading, data analysis activities, satellite imagery, computer visualizations, and hands-on experiments. This unit focuses on the ocean carbon cycle.

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An online passage which addresses the Health and Environmental risks of genetic engineering.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This is a fascinating article about the large role one tiny organism plays in its ecosystem. The author explores the predatory habits of the salamander, how this amphibian can affect the carbon cycle, and the changes that have been taking place in the salamander populations over time.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This interesting article about Burmese pythons in the Everglades showcases the effect one invasive species has on a local ecosystem and habitat. This is a great way to discuss invasive species in the classroom and explore the causes and effects on biodiversity.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article is about how scientists sought to understand why some sloths descend from trees, risking their lives, to defecate on the ground. Their research results suggest that the behavior is to increase the benefit gained from the sloth's mutualists: moths and algae.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes the way scientists have created the first lab-grown meat and the possible implications of this new technology. An infographic and video are included that add significantly to the content.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The author discusses the effects that invasive animals can have on an ecosystem. She initially writes about the Burmese python's effect on the Everglades and follows with the effects of other non-native species on native species. Finally, she exposes the reader to the debate about whether something should be done to control invasive species.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article explains the causes and locations of deforestation and explores the environmental consequences that occur because of the practice.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses the contribution that soil biodiversity has to the larger ecosystem. It addresses the consequences of the loss of soil biodiversity resulting from human activity.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains how seahorse heads are specialized to eliminate vibrations in the water, which might alert prey to their presence.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes the use of bacteria and fungi to share the process of changing cellulose in corn husks to isobutanol. In contrast to current methods of producing biofuels, this process requires a simple, one bioreactor process.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes the development of floor tiles that provide a green, alternative energy source. These tiles work on the principle that pressure (footsteps) generates an electric current from certain crystals in an application of the piezoelectric effect.

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The article explains the ocean garbage patches: what causes them, what consequences to marine life result from their presence, and what we can do about them. This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes a group of researchers/investors who are attempting to convert the energy in volcanically heated water to electricity using a new method of forming more fissures to hold the heated water.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This text describes the open cycle method of converting the energy of warmed, surface seawater into electricity and the benefits of using this method.

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This informational text is intended to support reading in the content area. This article discusses the unseen effects from the Gulf oil spill which lie beneath the surface of the "clean" sand along the Gulf Coast of the United States.

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This informational text is intended to support reading in the content area. This article discusses how sinkholes form, ways to recognize impending sinkholes, and ways to prevent them.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes an experiment that was done by scientists to show how corals are being destroyed by a certain type of seaweed and how goby fish rescue the coral.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article is about plankton and how they use nutrients like carbon dioxide based on where the plankton are living.

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This informational text is intended to support reading in the content area. This article deals with the invasive exotic species of tree known as melaleuca, which is mainly an issue in Southern Florida and Everglades National Park.

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This site from the National Academy of Sciences presents uses, sources, costs, and efficiency of energy.

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This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article presents experimental results from an investigation of how the amount of rainfall, predicted by climate change models, affects fungal decomposition on the forest floor. It discusses how spiders, springtails, and fungi form an important part of the nutrient-cycling food web in a forest ecosystem and how decomposition rates are influenced by precipitation in unique ways.

Type: Text Resource

Ecologist Daniel Janzen of the University of Pennsylvania describes how this plant's strategy came about and what's in it—both good and bad—for the bamboo, the rats and other predators, and anyone living nearby.

Type: Text Resource

Click "View Site" to open a full-screen version. This tutorial is designed to help secondary science teachers learn how to integrate literacy skills into their science curriculum. This tutorial will demonstrate a number of strategies teachers can impart to students to help them use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words within science texts. It will also help them teach students how to select the appropriate definition from reference materials. The focus on literacy across content areas is intended to help foster students' reading, writing, and thinking skills in multiple disciplines.

Type: Tutorial

Click "View Site" to open a full-screen version. This tutorial is designed to help secondary science teachers learn how to integrate literacy skills within their science curriculum. This tutorial focuses on using specific textual evidence to support students' responses as they analyze science texts. The focus on literacy across content areas is designed to help students independently build knowledge in different disciplines through reading and writing.

Type: Tutorial

How do coral reef conservationists balance the environmental needs of the reefs with locals who need the reefs to survive? Joshua Drew draws on the islands of Fiji and their exemplary system of protection, called "connectivity", which also keep the needs of fishermen in mind.

Type: Tutorial

When you picture the lowest levels of the food chain, you might imagine herbivores happily munching on lush, living green plants. But this idyllic image leaves out a huge (and slightly less appetizing) source of nourishment: dead stuff. John C. Moore details the "brown food chain," explaining how such unlikely delicacies as pond scum and animal feces contribute enormous amounts of energy to our ecosystems.

Type: Tutorial

In the past decade, the US honeybee population has been decreasing at an alarming and unprecedented rate. While this is obviously bad news for honeypots everywhere, bees also help feed us in a bigger way -- by pollinating our nation's crops. Emma Bryce investigates potential causes for this widespread colony collapse disorder.

Type: Tutorial

This short video opens up the oceans' microscopic ecosystem, revealing its beauty and complexity. Footage from the Plankton Chronicles Project is used to create a video designed to ignite wonder and curiosity about this hidden world that underpins our own food chain.

Type: Tutorial

This lab simulation will allow you to explore how carbon circulates through the environment. Through data collection and analysis, you will experiment with the impact that humans are having on the cycling of carbon and make data based predictions on how these impacts may change environmental outcomes to the year 2100.

Type: Tutorial

When a malaria-carrying mosquito bites a human host, the malaria parasite enters the bloodstream, multiplies in the liver cells, and is then released back into the bloodstream, where it infects and destroys red blood cells. This animation will help you to understand the process of malarial infection.

Type: Tutorial

This is a great tutorial on carbon cycle which gives data from NOAA's ESRL project.

Type: Tutorial

In this interactive, explore one of the most well-understood mass seedings—that of oak-tree acorn crops—and its widespread effects on various animals in the ecosystem as well as on nearby human populations.

Type: Tutorial

This lesson is about the flow of energy in ecosystems. The setting is Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA, where students will learn about the first Thanksgiving meal in America, celebrated in 1621 by early American settlers and Wampanoag Indians. By examining this meal and comparing it to a modern day Thanksgiving celebration, students will be able to explore the way in which food energy moves and is transformed in an ecosystem. The learning goals focus on the movement of energy from one feeding level to the next within a food web, the way in which energy changes form, and the inefficiency of energy transfer, which in turn affects the availability of food energy for organisms at the highest feeding level. The lesson is directed at high school level biology students. Students should be familiar already with food webs, food chains, and trophic (feeding) levels. They should also be familiar with the general equations for photosynthesis: 6H₂O + 6CO₂ + Energy(light) -> C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂ and cell respiration: C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂ -> 6H₂O + 6CO₂ +Energy(about 38ATP), and understand the basic purpose of these processes in nature. This lesson can be completed during one long classroom period, or can be divided over two or more class meetings. The duration of the lesson will depend on prior knowledge of the students and on the amount of time allotted for student discussion. There are no supplies required for this lesson other than the downloadable worksheets (accessed on this BLOSSOMS site), paper and some glue or tape. 

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This video shows mating displays and courtship behavior of Birds of Paradise. These birds display bright colors and visually stunning behaviors during courtship. 

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This lesson introduces students to Green Chemistry, the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and/or the generation of hazardous substances. Green chemistry is a proactive approach to pollution prevention that teaches chemists how to develop products and materials in a manner that does not use hazardous substances, thus avoiding much waste, hazards and associated costs. The goal of this lesson is to introduce students to the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry and how they relate to a chemical process. These principles provide a framework for scientists, engineers and chemistry students to use when designing new materials, products, processes, and systems. The Principles focus on sustainable design criteria and have proven to be the source of innovative solutions to a wide range of problems. Through this lesson, students will also use weight and measurement to understand the concept of a recipe as it is applied to a chemical process and think critically about that process and how it might be improved. Students will be asked to use a wasteful, inefficient procedure to make glue and be challenged to improve the procedure-during which they will unknowingly use the 12 Principles. Before starting this lesson, students should have been introduced to the periodic table and properties of matter. The estimated time for this lesson is 50-60 minutes. 

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

In this NSF video and reading selection evolutionary biologist and ecologist John Bishop documents the return of living things to Mount St. Helens after the largest landslide in recorded history. This is a rare opportunity for scientists to get to study a devastated area and how it comes back from scratch in such detail.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

In this software simulation, students take on the role of bees and experiment with different foraging patterns in a field of flowers to maximize net energy input. Students generate quantitative data that can be analyzed and graphed.

Type: Virtual Manipulative